Principal Investigator

Linda conducted her PhD at the University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Children with Dr. Bryan Williams, focusing on interferon as an anti-viral. She then pursued her Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now The Frances Crick Institute) in London, UK with Dr. Hartmut Land. She also enjoyed working with Dr. Gerard Evan at ‘the Fund’ and this is where her fascination with the MYC oncogene began. Moving back to Canada in the 1990’s, she established her lab with a focus on the regulation and function of the MYC oncoprotein and then evaluating the role of statin drugs as anti-cancer agents.

She is fascinated with the transformation process and identifying the tumour vulnerabilities that can be exploited as novel therapeutic strategies to impact patient care and outcome.

Dr. Penn is Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Penn is also a Professor in the Medical Biophysics Department at the University of Toronto and Director of the University Health Network’s Office of Research Trainees. She is a scientific advisor on several national/international review panels and is on several journal editorial boards. She was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Linkoping University in Sweden.

Research Technicians

Fereshteh Khosrav
Special mention goes to Fereshteh, who was our Head Research Technician for 13 years until her retirement in 2011. Fereshteh was known as the ‘lab mom’, always taking care not only of the cells and ordering, but also taking care of everyone who had the pleasure to know her during their time in the Penn lab! During those years nearly 40 research trainees and scientific associates were part of the Penn lab! Many thanks Fereshteh for helping to nurture and support us all, and make the Penn lab a busy and productive place to conduct research!